That was a long ten days, that was. The flu fairy came to visit. Everybody’s better now. That’s all I’m saying.

Last night we hosted a potluck dinner to celebrate a committee that BluesRay’s been chairing for nine months, who have now successfully finished their task. A dozen people came.

It was the first time since we’d started renovating that we’d let anybody in the door who wasn’t family or close friends or a contractor. I cleaned for three days. It’s amazing how paint cans and brushes and tools and extra doorknobs can spread themselves thin all over the house. Just like plaster dust.

And there is nothing like the threat of “company’s coming!” to induce a panicky rush to tidy it all up. We can’t have anybody thinking that we’ve been actually living in a renovation project now, can we?

This past week we’ve had two major winter storms. One brought over a foot of snow, the other brought enough rain and ice to knock out power to 650,000+ people. I couldn’t go to work. I got to build a table on my unplanned day off.

Last summer I rescued a weird industrial sort of “tabletop” from my dad’s hoard of stuff.

One of the weird things we found in my father’s basement hoard. It appears as though something once covered the middle area because it’s cleaner and lighter. Mysteries!

I’ve wanted to paint my hope chest for a long time. No, not change the color. Just add a bit of interest. My original thought was to use flower designs from the rug. Ultimately, though, that seemed too modern for this antique pine chest.